Nigellas Chicken with Tomatoes and Peppers

I've had a nicely busy Easter Holiday so far, with a family city break to Edinburgh and friends to stay for a few days. We decided on dinner one night at Jamie's Italian, a beautiful looking restaurant situated in the Old Assembly rooms on George Street, Edinburgh. With a good vibe and a buzzing atmosphere, the food was pleasant though not wonderful. The restaurant was packed on a Wednesday evening, I guess that's the power of Jamie Oliver. The kids were disappointed that there were no pizzas on the menu and opted for Tagliatelle Bolognese instead, which they didn't enthuse about. I had turkey Milanese, breaded turkey stuffed with prosciutto and fontina cheese. It was huge, the size of the plate almost. I ordered a side of polenta chips, which to be honest I wasn't keen on. Steve had the very impressive looking Jamie's Italian burger. We liked the fact that the kids could order as many scoops of ice cream as they wanted off the kids menu for 50p each. The menu is comprised of Jamie's favourite Italian recipes, apart from that I am not sure what involvement he will have in the restaurants. They seem to be popping up in most major cities and I am sure they will do well just because they have his name associated with them.  
The recipe below is a meal I cooked on holiday in the February half term, from the Nigellissima Cookbook. It's not my favourite chicken recipe, not nearly as good as Hunters Chicken, which I have previously blogged. Though on holiday it made a good quick supper dish. The recipe stated serving it with Orzo pasta, but any pasta would do. 

Ingredients 
serves 3-4
1 x 15ml tablespoon garlic oil
1 small onion, or 1 banana shallot finely chopped
500g chicken thigh fillets, cut into bitesize pieces (I used breast fillets)
1 tsp dried oregano
2 x 15ml tablespoons marsala
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes, plus water to rinse out can
1 tsp sea salt flakes, or ½ tsp pouring salt
1 x 290g jar (190g drained weight) flame roasted red peppers 

Method
Pour the garlic oil into a small casserole dish or heavy based pan and cook the onion until soft, stirring frequently. Add the chicken along with the oregano and turn in the hot pan. Add the marsala and watch it bubble up, before promptly adding the tomatoes and the salt.
Half-fill the empty can with water and pour it into the pan, swilling out as much of the tomato as you can. Drain the peppers and snip with scissors into bitesize pieces (or remove your roasted peppers from the over). Add to the pan and then bring to the boil before turning down the heat and leaving to cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes until the sauce has thickened. As the pan is simmering, cook the orzo pasta. When the pasta is done and the chicken cooked through, serve in bowls or serve straight from the pan at the table. 

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